England's 2-0 defeat against Pakistan was the result they deserved for an inconsistent tour which culminated in a disastrous collapse on the final day in Lahore.

Michael Vaughan's Ashes heroes looked likely at lunchtime to salvage a draw which would have meant a slightly more palatable 1-0 reverse - but instead after a heartening stand of 175 between Ian Bell (90) and Durham's Paul Collingwood (80) they lost their last eight wickets for only 43 runs in barely 12 overs.

The damning statistical result was defeat by an innings and 100 runs well before teatime, and Vaughan was not about to quibble with the outcome of a series in which his team failed to cope with the pace threat of a resurgent Shoaib Akhtar and could not stem the runs of Inzamam-ul-Haq and, in this final Test, double-centurion Mohammad Yousuf.

"They were the better team - it's as simple as that. We have been outplayed, and when you've been outplayed you have to accept you don't deserve to win," he said.

"The bare facts are that over the three matches they were better in all the areas - in the field, with the ball and with the bat. If you're not as good as the opposition in all three areas you're not going to win a series - and they fully deserved to win 2-0."

England, who raised expectations with their surprise victory over Australia last summer, paid dearly for one bad day in Multan where they carved out a winning position in the first Test only to fall in a heap and end up losing.

On the final day there in pursuit of 198 to win, they lost six wickets for 53 runs.

Their only remaining ambition from the outset yesterday was to avoid a second defeat, having conceded a huge first-innings deficit of 348 on a blameless if slow surface - yet the post-lunch collapse this time was Multan to the power 10.

Vaughan's assessment was diplomatically considered, following an alarming and terminal descent from 205 for two to 248 all out.

"Sometimes you have to hold your hand up and give an opponent credit. Shoaib Akhtar produced a very good spell of bowling; (leg-spinner) Danish Kaneria takes a couple of quick wickets, and we just couldn't apply ourselves in the conditions," he said.

"With Shoaib bowling at that pace and the mystery of the slower ball and the yorkers and the bouncers, we weren't quite up to it."

ALARM

Former Durham bowler Shoaib (five for 71) and Kaneria (four for 52) - who took three wickets in five balls for no runs - had served warning even before lunch when Bell and Collingwood did well to apparently keep England on course for a draw by batting out a second consecutive session without serious alarm.

The serenity of their third-wicket partnership belied England's collective vulnerability bubbling under the surface - and by the time Shoaib and Kaneria had done their worst they had 17 and 11 wickets respectively in the series.

Vaughan was satisfied with the way his team played Kaneria but accepted the once recalcitrant `Rawalpindi Express' always looked likely to run through them.

And Vaughan added: "In periods of play we have shown patience and batted well - but at others we just haven't applied ourselves as well as we can and enough in these conditions."

Those facts were never more evident than in yesterday's microcosm of England's tour.

At lunch the salvage job seemed more than half-way done; yet in three overs after the restart they lost four wickets - Kaneria eliminating Collingwood as well as Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen, who mustered just one run between them.

JAMMING

Collingwood's 196-ball stay ended when he pushed forward to a delivery and edged a catch to slip off a Kaneria leg-break, and Pietersen laid back to cut the same bowler but also snicked one to Hasan Raza. Kaneria then sent in a googly to bowl Flintoff through the gate for a duck.

Worse was to come for England when Shoaib got in on the act - fooling Bell with a slower ball to win an lbw verdict and Geraint Jones going the same way despite jamming a big inside edge on the ball before it hit his pad.

His misfortune did not figure on a scoreboard which made near hopeless reading by the time Liam Plunkett was eighth out, lbw for a duck to another Shoaib slower ball.

Shaun Udal marshalled a brief rally with the tail - but the game was already up, Kaneria appropriately finishing things off by bowling Matthew Hoggard with a googly.